1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent rapid developments in electronic, communications, and computer industries, camcorders, mobile phones, notebook computers, tablet PCs, etc. are widely used. Therefore, a demand for high-performance secondary batteries that are lightweight, have long lifetimes, and are highly reliable is increasing. For example, lithium secondary batteries receive much attention and an application range thereof is ever widening.
A battery pack is used in either a hard pack form in which an exterior case is used to protect a bare cell and a safety device cell or an inner pack form in which a gap between a bare cell and a protection circuit substrate is filled with a hot melted resin and tubing or labeling is performed using a thin exterior material.
A lithium secondary battery can be categorized as, according to the type of an electrolyte included therein, a lithium metal or ion battery using an organic solvent electrolyte or a lithium polymer battery using a solid polymer electrolyte. According to the shape of a can housing an electrode assembly and an electrolytic solution, a lithium secondary battery can also be categorized as a circular lithium secondary battery, a rectangular lithium secondary battery, or a pouch-shaped lithium secondary battery.
In general, a lithium polymer battery using a solid polymer electrolyte has a pouch-like outer shape, and a lithium ion battery using an organic solvent electrolyte has a circular or rectangular outer shape.
The above information disclosed in this Related Art section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.